Colbeck and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Tuesday was not a good day to be an egotistical conservative. Senator Patrick Colbeck, a State Senator, candidate for governor and anti-healthcare zealot had a tough day. Not only was he schooled on the Constitution by Senator David Knezek, he also lost control of his office.

Colbeck and the Constitution: Part Time Lovers

Senator Patrick Colbeck opposed an amendment that would require the teaching of the entire Declaration of Independence, the entire U.S. Constitution and the entire Michigan Constitution.

The amendment was offered by Senator David Knezek in response to a bill sponsored by Colbeck that would instruct the teaching of specific elements of the documents instead of allowing educators to teach the entire documents.

Senator Colbeck clearly hasn’t spent any time reading and understanding the documents or the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton spent years on the founding documents. The last thing we need is for Senator Colbeck to grab his red pen and edit the documents to his liking and warped ideological view.

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof removed Colbeck from his committee assignments because Colbeck isn’t very likeable and Meekhof has thin skin. But now Meekhof has taken the extraordinary step of taking all power from Colbeck, removing his ability to spend any money in his office without Meekhof’s approval.

Colbeck can no longer hire staff, place interns, pay his phone bill, hell he can’t even lick a stamp without Arlan’s approval. Patrick Colbeck voted for the Emergency Manager bill because he believed it was a good idea to take away control from elected officials when establishment Republicans didn’t like how they acted. Now that Arlan Meekhof is essentially Colbeck’s emergency manager, will Senator Colbeck change his tune? Probably not.

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